Midnight Comfort
by vesago
Summary: In harry's sixth year Harry learns just how much pain hermoine is really in


I do not encourage cutting/anorexia/bulimia in any way! I'm sorry if it's OOC, but I think given the situation. I hope you review I like knowing what people think.

Harry Potter woke up to a pain in his stomach and lower intestine. _Time to go to the bathroom _he thought to himself only then feeling his stumugh growl. He walked to the bathroom.

When he got to the bathroom, he heard horrible retching coming from the farthest stall. Curious, he walked over, but his eyes couldn't comprehend what he was seeing.

Hermione Granger

hunched over a toilet seat, her finger down her throat, puking her guts out. He stood there in horror, watching, until she had nothing else to throw up.

"What the?" he yelled, pulling her up by the back of her long sleeved pajama shirt. He turned her towards him. "What do you think you were doing?" he hissed.

Hermione glared at him. "That's none of your business," she told him, and started pulling away.

Harry grabbed her wrist and held her back. "I find you making yourself throw up in the boys bathroom when you're most obviously a girl. It's my business." Hermione just shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. "Look, we've been through a lot together." He sat her down and put a friendly and comforting arm around her, his free hand holding hers. "You can tell me _anything_."

Hermione looked at the floor and blinked, letting only one tear fall from her eyes. "You wouldn't get it," she told him.

Harry shrugged. "Probably not," he admitted, "but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try and help."

"I don't trust you. You'd laugh," she whispered. "Just like everybody else." She sounded they way she looked: weak and vulnerable.

Harry shook his head, not understanding. "Hermione. What's happened to you? You haven't been eating as much, you pass out whenever you train to hard, and even though it's hot outside, you've been wearing long sleeves. Everybody's worried about you," he told her, his voice soothing and full of worry.

"Not everybody," she whispered. She let a few tears come down, but she blinked back the rest as best as she could.

Harry held her closer, like a brother would his sister, or maybe more. "What's wrong, Hermione? You need to tell me. It's not safe to keep it all bottled up."

The witch took a deep breath and blurted out, "Am I pretty?"

Harry was taken aback. "Wha-what?" he asked, confused at the sudden outburst.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she repeated, drowning in her insecurities.

For Harry, it all fit together like a puzzle. "Pull up your sleeves," he ordered. Before she could do anything, though, he did it for her.

Her arm was tainted with red. Old wounds mixed with newer ones danced across her arms and wrists. He traced the scars, but stopped when he saw how much pain she was in. He checked the left arm, and it was much worse. You almost couldn't see any skin that was left unmarked.

He looked up to her face. She wasn't even trying to hold back tears. "Please don't tell anyone," she begged.

Harry shook his head in disbelief. "I don't get it. I figured you to be stronger than this. Cutting yourself, anorexia, and bulimia. It's not you," he told her.

"It's not enough, huh?" she asked.

Harry couldn't believe it. Hermione Granger was one of, if not the most, strongest person he's ever met. To see her weak and insecure… it made him wonder who else goes through this, and how much worse it is.

"It's too much," he told her. He lifted her chin to look her in the eyes. "You're beautiful, Hermione."

She gave a weak scoff. "Try telling Vane that."

Percy stared at her. "_Remelda (A/N did I spell that right) Vane_? You're letting _her_ get to you? Why? She's an absolute idiot!"

Hermione looked back at the ground. "She's right. I'm _not_ anything close to even bearable. I'm a bushy haired know-it-all. Everything she says is true. No boy wants anything to do with me. _Nobody_ cares about me. If I were to kill myself right now- and it's not that far from reality- _nobody_ would care. They'd probably be happy."

Harry wrapped him arms comfortingly around Hermione and she leaned into his touch, not sure what was letting herself trust him so much for how she's feeling.

Harry gently stroked the girls brown hair, letting a comfortable silence wrap around them. "We love you, you know that?' he told her.

"And we all care about you. This wouldn't be school without you. And nobody wants you to kill yourself." He looked at her. "You're killing yourself slowly. Do you really want that?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "Isn't that what everyone wants? For me to be gone?"

"That's what Vane wants! Not anybody else!" he yelled. "She's an idiot and a jerk and a bully. She has no right to feed you lies! Believe it or not, it _hurt_ to see you throwing up. It _hurts_ to see you so hurt. Why? Because I love you! If you asked every guy here who they thought was most attractive, they'd answer with your name. Wanna know why? Because confidence is the _most _attractive thing a girl can have, and you are the most confident and smartest person ever."

"Then why do girls like Vane have a bunch of guys fawning over them?" Hermione countered, tears making stains on her face, as if she was cutting her face, too.

Harry ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "Because those are bunch of idiots who have no respect for women. Why do you even let just one annoyance get to you?" he asked.

"It's not just Her," Hermione answered. Harry raised an eyebrow. "You don't think I don't know what people say about me? I hear their whispers, calling me fat and ugly and stupid and a freak and telling me to die and other things that I refuse to repeat. I know for a fact one of the first words that you though of me when you first saw me was ugly." Harry stayed silent. "It hurts a lot more than I let on. I may be from the house of the brave, but I'm still a girl, and I still have insecurities," she continued.

"And you think hurting yourself will make you any better?" Harry questioned. "Because really, when girls do this to themselves, it's not attractive. You're the most beautiful girl I've ever met." Hermione put her head in the crook of his neck and sobbed. "It's not because you're stunning. It's because you put every girl to shame. You're smarter than anybody would ever think, the best witch I've ever competed against- and just beautiful. I can't stress that enough."

Hermione looked at him. "I can't see one thing about me that's somewhat ok, much less beautiful."

"Your eyes," Harry blurted. "The way they can go from hard to loving in just a second. It's really cool. And everything about you is amazing and stunning and beautiful. Beauty, no matter how hidden by pain and lies, is still visible. Just because Vane is too stupid to see that doesn't mean everybody doesn't see it. Why don't you see that?"

Harry looked at her figure, wrapped up in his arms, her face tearstained. He had never seen Hermione so weak, and he never wanted to. To see somebody so strong become so weak and vulnerable… he was ready to hex the snot out of Vane and every girl who made fun of Hermine.

Herminone turned her head to Harry's "Kiss me." but harry hesitated

She shook her head, fear on her face. "No of corse not." Hermione sobbed "No one can barly look at me"

When she looked up to him with pleading eyes, Harry realized just how much this was affecting her. She truly thought no one could ever even look at her let alone kiss her , she would have to kill herself. He always did love Hermione but never did anything because Ron called dibs when they were younger but then again he was busy with Lavender.

He took her chin to turn her face to his and closed the distance of thier lips after 15-20 seconds they broke apart slowly. Harry looked into her eyes "I love you Herminone and you are beautiful."

Hermione looked at him. "I don't want to be alone with this. I'm scared. I'm seventeen, weigh 44 kilos and _still_ get called names."

Harry stared at her, mouth agape. "_44_?" Hermione nodded and Harry hugged her, now scared of crushing her. "You're not going to go through this alone. I'm going to be here for you and I always will."

Harry gently pushed Hermoine's hair out of her face and behind her ears. "This is life or death. And I can help you." He took some snacks out of his pants pocket, a crumbled cookie and gave it to her he hoped that maybe, just maybe, she wanted this pain to end, too.

"Eat on three," he told her and she nodded. "One."

She took a shaky breath and wiped the few stray tears. "Two."

They looked at each other and, at the same time, said: "Three," and she ate the cookie.

The next day, Hermione leaning on her new boyfreind ate her first full meal in two years.


End file.
